NuclearPhynance Archive

Sci fi has been hit or miss for me too.

Have just read The Forever War by Haldeman. Very good.

Can also recommend The Stars My Destination by Bester.



These are both part of the S.F. Masterworks series.

chiral, if you want to check out some escapist fare, I have a recommendation for you.



The book is called "The Da Vinci Code" and it's by some guy named Dan Brown. Supposed to be really good...

Never heard of it. Thanks for the recommendation

Jack Vance -- Tales of the dying earth



It's not clear whether it's science fiction or fantasy, but

it's pre-Tolkien and very different.

chiral, yep Gibson is somehow boring. Jon Walter Williams or Bruce Sterling ("Mozart with mirror lenses" is short stories, quick to read) are my favorites in this field.

Stanislaw Lem, "Philosophy of randomness".



Although written about the literature many thoughts are universally applicable: the nature of pattern recognition in the chaos vs aesthetic/appeal, perception, commonly acceptable things, interpretation of information etc.



Incredible book.



http://www.lem.pl/

This is already the best thing I've read all year, and I'm only 2/3 through:



Ignition! An informal history of liquid rocket propellants



The guy who wrote it is hilarious. A history of rocketry as high comedy.



"And if you, gentle reader, have never seen a nervous rocket mechanic, complete with monkey suit, being buzzed by nine thousand demented bats and trying to beat them off with a shovel, there is something missing from your experience. "



It's available in PDF here. Prints small on the kindle, but it's worth it.

I took a peek and now you got me into it too. If the first two pictures don't hook you nothing will.

Half way through... Many sections are funny. From the beginning:



"The next combination that the group tried then, was nitrogen tetroxide and methanol. Tests began in August 1937. But Malina, instead of working outdoors, as any sane man would have done, was so ill advised as to conduct his tests in the Mechanical Engineering building, which, on the occasion of a misfire, was filled with a mixture of methanol and N2O4 fumes. The latter, reacting with the oxygen and the moisture in the air, cleverly converted itself to nitric acid, which settled corrosively on all the expensive machinery in the building. Malina's popularity with the establishment suffered a vertiginous drop, he and his apparatus and his accomplices were summarily thrown out of the building, and he was thereafter known as the head of the "suicide squad." Pioneers are seldom appreciated."

> Jack Vance -- Tales of the dying earth

Here, here!